To say that Barisan Nasional (BN) has made it difficult for itself when it chose a candidate, that is a soft target for the Pakatan Rakyat (PR), is a massive understatement.

If this is a pole-climbing contest, BN has smeared theirs with grease and put bamboo spikes at the bottom of the pole, and told their candidate to climb up, with one hand tied behind his back at night, during a thunderstorm.

The laws of probability say their candidate for Permatang Pasir Rohaizat Othman still has a chance but there are so many zeroes padding the decimal point that for Rohaizat’s actual chance of winning is smaller than finely chopped bacteria.

Even the most strident Umno supporters have been scratching their heads, wondering how a simple background check failed to highlight a possible legal minefield in the candidate’s history.

BN made such a fantastic choice of candidate for Manek Urai and proved to themselves that, first and foremost, people just want honest and hardworking candidate to look to and consider voting for. But, it appears now that this is not the case in their choice for Permatang Pasir.

Rohaizat’s past has been the topic of most political speeches since the start of campaigning and the questions raised by PR speakers were simple ones, but they struck close to the heart.

The statement by the Bar Council that Rohaizat was struck off the Roll of Advocates and Solicitors because the complaint was personal to him is a major blow, making it even more difficult for Umno to prop up their candidate’s limp credibility.

Some have suggested that BN should go along the lines that Pakatan Rakyat’s leadership is a veritable roll call of ex-convicts; Anwar was jailed for sodomy, Lim Guan Eng was behind bars for breaking the Printing PressesandPublicationsAct1984, Muhammad Sabu was caught with a woman he was not married to in a hotel room and the list goes on.

Those are facts but they are not the sort that fence sitters are attracted to and it has nothing to do with PAS candidate, Mohd Salleh Man.

The opening act fiasco in Permatang Pasir has apparently caused deep unhappiness within the BN machinery, with some people talking about darker shades of grey creeping up amongst grassroots leaders.

This sort of mutinous talk will not help BN’s assault in Permatang Pasir and each day that passes without any concrete evidence of Rohaizat’s innocence is another day wasted in the effort to win over undecided voters.

The bottom line is PR’s smear campaign on Rohaizat’s personality will make it difficult for people to justify voting for him. As humans, we have an in-built moral circuit breaker. It is called shame.

There is no doubt that the circuit breaker had been triggered in many voters who are thinking of tipping the scale on BN’s behalf. So now, even if they are still resolved to vote for Rohaizat, they will have to do it quietly with their heads hanging low.

You cannot win an election without a strong sense of pride and that is sorely lacking in the BN camp.

For most reporters on the ground, the Permatang Pasir by-election is a major letdown; the climax came even before the heavy petting ended and we are left holding on to a limp campaign.

Keningau: The Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) parties under Barisan Nasional (BN) should be given priority to contest in any new constituency that may be created in any of the existing KDM-dominated constituencies under the on-going Election Commission (EC) re-delineation exercise in Sabah.

Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, who is also PBRS President, also hoped the KDM communities would remain united and give their full support to the KDM-based parties which have been fighting for their interests.

He claimed non-KDM-based parties in the BN had demanded representation in any new constituency that may be created in the Interior under the re-delineation exercise.

He described this as “not a good action by our colleagues and kind of an attempt to marginalise.”

Kurup, who is Pensiangan MP, was speaking at a leader-meet-the-people session at Kampung Merapok, here.

GEORGE TOWN: Residents of Kampung Buah Pala – popularly known as the state’s High Chaparral – have called for the resignation of Seri Delima assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer and for a by-election to be held.

Kampung Buah Pala Residents Association secretary J. Steven said Rayer did not deserve to be their assemblyman as he had failed to fulfil his pledge to help them solve their problems.

The residents are facing the possibility of being evicted from their homes within weeks after the Federal Court ruled in the developer’s favour recently.

“He had promised us that our village would be safe and that it would be over his dead body that the village would be taken away from us.

“But now, he’s avoiding us and whenever we request for a meeting with the Chief Minister, he tells us that the Chief Minister is not free to meet us,” Steven said at a gathering of some 30 residents, who protested in front of Rayer’s house in Tingkat Tembaga, Island Park, last night.

Association chairman M. Sugumaran said the residents also wanted to seek advice and an explanation from Rayer on why he had failed to inform them about a writ of possession dated July 2 issued to them.

He said George Town OCPD Asst Comm Azam Abdul Hamid had informed the residents that they were to vacate the village by July 2.

“We were advised not to disturb the court bailiff or to cause any trouble on that day.”

Sugumaran said the residents felt betrayed by both the previous and the present state governments as nothing had been done to help the residents.

MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat has been criticised for calling on Lim Kit Siang to apologise to the Chinese community over DAP’s appeal to them to support Pas in the last general election.

DAP national chairman Karpal Singh said Ong had no business to call on Lim, the DAP adviser, to do so.

Ong was making a very poor effort in trying to distract attention from the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) debacle, he said.

Karpal, in a statement today, noted that in a public survey put up by Ong in his blog, “Should MCA leave BN?”, 75.8 per cent of those who participated were in favour of the component party pulling out from Barisan Nasional.

“Isn’t Ong morally obliged, in line with this survey, to pull out MCA from BN?” he asked.
Karpal said the DAP had, time and again, criticised Pas leaders whenever they made statements which were extreme in racial and religious content.

He noted that Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang was also not spared for his proposal for unity talks with Umno.

Pas’ spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, in no uncertain terms, has publicly criticised his colleagues, including Hadi Awang, for pushing their agenda for unity talks with Umno.

“Hadi Awang owes an apology to both DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat as well as Nik Aziz for having proposed unity talks with Umno in clear breach of sincerity and bona fides in his dealings with DAP and PKR.

“It is only hoped in future that Hadi Awang thinks before he talks. He is fast becoming an embarrassment to Pakatan Rakyat,” Karpal said.